Remarks by the President at Republican Congressional Retreat
Kingsmill Resort Landing Williamsburg, Virginia

12:55 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very
much. I like to give short speeches and I'm always on
time. (Laughter and applause.) But, evidently, I
didn't get the dress code. (Laughter.)

I really appreciate you, Speaker, thanks for
your friendship, thanks for your leadership. These are two
really good men. (Applause.) And I want to thank
you, J.C. and Rick, as well, for your -- pretty darn eloquent guy for
being from Oklahoma. (Laughter.) He can tell
it. I appreciate you, thank you very much. I'm
looking forward to welcoming the University of Oklahoma football team
to the White House. (Applause.)

I appreciate the Chairman of the Republican
Party being here. I chose a fellow governor -- or I asked a
fellow governor to serve, and he's a good one. He's a strong
leader. He's done a fabulous job for the Commonwealth of
Virginia and I appreciate you being here, Jim, thank you very much.
(Applause.)

I'm glad you get to see the Secretary of the
Treasury, who's smart and capable. He's surrounded by
Senator Grassley and Congressman Thomas, good
work. (Laughter.) It didn't take you long to
transition from the private sector. And Condi is here, Condi
Rice; a capable Chief of Staff, Andy Card; Nick Calio, who's going to
really head up our congressional affairs.

The reason I bring these people up is that
they're here to serve America, they're here to work with you to make
our jobs easier. And I've assembled one of the finest staffs
any President has ever done in the White House. (Applause.)

I'm making my rounds to the various
caucuses. Senator Daschle invited me over this morning to
the Library of Congress, and I was so honored he would, and it gave me
a chance to come. Many members of the Senate there had never
seen me in person and had never had a chance to visit. And
we had a very good discussion, and I was grateful for his
introduction. I'm going on to Pennsylvania Sunday afternoon, as well,
thanks to the kind invitation of Congressman Gephardt.

And I want to go around and say a couple of
things as clearly as I can. First, here, I want to thank all
the members who are here who I got to campaign with. We had
a lot of fun. It was tiring at times, but I really, really
appreciated the senators and House members for joining me and Laura on
the campaign trail. It really made it a lot easier to
understand your districts, as well as to put up with all the long hours
on the campaign trail. So thanks from the bottom of my heart
for your sacrifices.

It also gives me a chance to say how deadly
earnest I am about using my position as your President to change the
tone in the nation's capital. (Applause.) To say to America
that we'll have our disagreements, we'll fight over principle and we'll
argue over detail -- but we'll do so in a way that respects one
another. I think it's so important for us as leaders, as
people who have been given positions of responsibility, to understand
that the way the process is conducted can set a good or bad tone for
America. I'm committed to setting a positive tone for the
country, and I know you'll join me.

You're not going to agree with everything I
say. I probably won't agree with everything you
say. But I'll listen. And I'll respect your
opinion. I'll try to understand why the position you've
taken, I'll try and understand why you don't do everything I tell you
to do. (Laughter.)

But I'll do so in a way that tries to figure
out where the other person comes from. I think that's an
important part of the Washington experience. I'm absolutely
convinced that we can change Washington for the better. I
believe we can have the dialogue so necessary that will inspire some
youngster who's looking at Washington to say, I think I want to serve
my country; I think I want to maybe go to the United States Senate or
the United States House.

We have that responsibility to our
citizens. And I pledge to you that these first 14 days in
office, or near 14 days in office -- the tone set in the first 14 days
will be a consistent tone for however long I happen to be fortunate
enough to be your President. This is a message I want to say
to all elected officials. I love meeting with the
members. For those of you who have been to our office,
thanks for coming. For those of you that have not been to
our office yet, you're coming. Just don't take any
silverware. (Laughter and applause.)

When you come, I look forward to hearing from
you. I look forward to having a frank
discussion. I look forward to hearing what's on your mind.
I don't want you to -- I'm sure you won't be, but don't be looking
around at the furnishings and say, gosh, oh, the meeting ended and I
didn't say anything. We expect to hear from you, and that's
the best way to get things done, is to have a good, honest discussion.

I also want to remind members of both parties
that I am able to stand before you as the President because of an
agenda that I ran on. I believe the fact that I took
specific stands on important issues is the reason I was able to
win. The fact that I took on the Social Security issue in as
clear language as I could be, with innovative thinking, I believe --
was part of the reasons why people came our way.

I'm going to take that same positions I took
on Social Security and other issues, and try to get them on the floor
of the House and the Senate and get something
done. (Applause.) It's a positive
agenda. It's one that I believe, when we apply our
principles to it, will make a huge difference for
America. The agenda is going to require a lot of patience
and a lot of time and a lot of work. But I want you to know,
this is not a lot of items. I believe I've got a limited
amount of capital, and I'm going to spend it wisely and spend it in a
focused way. One item is Social Security,
another is Medicare reform. We have a fantastic opportunity
to seize the initiatives to make sure that working with people like
Chairman Thomas, to make sure that the Medicare system
works. Prescription drugs need to be an integral part of
Medicare delivery system. It will be a proud moment for all
of us, Republicans and Democrats, to say we came together to modernize
Medicare so that the seniors can retire in
dignity. (Applause.)

I see the respective chairmen of the
committees dealing with our military. I commit to you that
our mission is going to be to make sure our military is strong and
capable. But it first requires the administration to
act. One, is to clarify the mission, to make it clear to
those who wear our uniform that the mission is to be prepared and ready
to fight and win war, and therefore prevent war from happening in the
first place. (Applause.)

But we have an obligation to the members of
Congress to present a strategic vision about what the military ought to
look like. We've got an unbelievable opportunity as we go
into the 21st century to refashion how war is fought and won and,
therefore, how the peace is kept. It's a remarkable
moment. But it's incumbent upon those of us in the executive
branch -- Secretary Rumsfeld and our policy team -- to present to you a
blueprint about what the military ought to look like and where the
priorities ought to be.

You may like it, you may not like
it. But before we -- good appropriations will really only
occur if there is a strategic vision. And we're the
appropriate people to present the strategic vision. So
Secretary Rumsfeld is working on that.

We've had a lot of talk -- early talk about
education. I want to thank you all for your respective
chairmen coming over and talking about education. This is
not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue; this is of national
concern, to make sure our public schools function. And we
can apply some principles that I think we all agree with, which is high
standards, expecting the best for every child, local control of
schools, trusting local people to run the schools, and strong
accountability systems. (Applause.)

But as well, insist that there be
results. Guess what happens in systems when you don't
measure? Inner-city schools just get shuffled through the
school systems. Or in my case, in my state, sometimes
children whose parents didn't speak English as a first language just
got moved through. Because you know why? We
didn't know. And they come out at the end, and somebody
says, oh, you can't read like you're supposed to. That's
because we didn't have the courage to insist upon
measurement. We didn't have the courage to insist upon
results. In order to make sure every child is educated, I
mean every child, and no child is left behind, we've got to adopt a
system that has high standards, local control of schools and the
willingness to hold people accountable for results. And an
accountability system for which there is a consequence if there is
success, and there is a consequence if there is failure. (Applause.)

Many members, Republican and Democrat alike,
have said, are you going to give us a budget? I said, of
course -- just hope you don't kill it the minute it
arrives. It is our responsibility to do so, and working with
the Speaker and the Leader to make sure it's there on a timely
basis. But we'll have a budget. It's a budget
that will set aside Social Security for one thing -- payroll taxes for
Social Security and only Social Security. It's a budget that pays down
national debt. It's a budget that sets spending priorities.

But it's also a budget that recognizes we must
provide tax relief to the people who pay the
bills. (Applause.) I feel strongly about this
issue. And of course I hope you join me. It is so
important for us to understand some facts. One, the economy
is slowing down. And it's important for us to combine good
monetary policy with good fiscal policy. And good fiscal policy is a
sound budget, coupled with giving people some of their own money back,
to serve as a second wind to an economy. I come from the
school of thought that by cutting marginal rates for everybody who pays
taxes is a good way to help ease the pain of what may be an economic
slowdown. I'm going to make that case over and over and over
again until we get a bill through. (Applause.)

It's important for us not to let the tax
relief debate fall into a class warfare debate. It seems
like to me the fair way to do things is if people pay taxes, they ought
to get tax relief. (Applause.)

But I want to assure you that inherent in our
plan is an understanding of how unfair the tax system
is. It's unfair to people at the bottom end of the economic
ladder. If you're a single -- one of these radio addresses
for tomorrow -- and I talked about the single mom who is working hard
to get ahead. She's making $22,000 a year. Many
of you heard -- usually heard me use this example in the
campaign. I want to share it with you again, because it's an
inherent part of our plan.

For every dollar she earns, because of the
earned income tax phase-out and because she gets into the 15 percent
bracket and because she pays payroll taxes, she pays a higher rate on
the extra dollar earned than someone who is making $200,000 a
year. That's today's tax code. And so part of our
plan is not only to serve as an insurance policy against a severe
economic downturn or a second wind for economic recovery, however you
want to put it; but part of our vision addresses unfairness in the code
by recognizing there are people struggling to get in the middle class.

This country must understand that by making
the code more simple, by dropping the bottom rate from 15 to 10
percent, increasing the child credit we make that middle class, that
dream of ownership so much more accessible, and that's what we ought to
be representing in the great land called
America. (Applause.)

There is a lot of talk about debt, and we need
to retire debt at the federal level. Just remember --
lockboxing Social Security, a payroll tax is a pretty darn good step to
relieving debt. But there will be a glide path for debt
repayment in our budget. But during this debate, I want you
all to remember that there is a huge consumer debt burdening many
people working for a living in America, that there are 61 million
Americans, I've been told, that have $10,000 or more of consumer debt.

Now think about that. These are
people working hard to get ahead. They've got a pretty high debt
load. And all of a sudden, energy prices start moving up on
them. And the combination of the two worries me, and I hope
it worries members of Congress, regardless of their party.

So tax relief is important to help working
people manage their own accounts, manage their own personal
business. And they say, well, that's not much
money. Well, if you're a family of four making $50,000 a
year, under my plan, your taxes go from $4,000 to
$2,000. That's $2,000 extra dollars. That's a lot
for somebody struggling. That's a lot for somebody who is on
the margin. And we must hear those voices on the
margin. So tax relief is not only good economic policy, it's
good people policy. (Applause.)

We can talk about marginal
rates. We also need to talk about the death tax and the
marriage penalty -- two important ingredients about making sure the
code is more fair and more responsive to the needs of working
Americans. And that's my agenda.

I'm going to be asked to comment on a lot of
issues; I'm confident about that. And I'm sure I'll have an
opinion. (Laughter.) But when it comes to
spending capital, and staying focused, that's where this administration
is going to be. And I look forward to working with
you. I look forward to working with you to get things done
for the people. I can't think of a better cause then the
people of America. J.C. hit it right, this is a fabulous
land, because the people are so great.

I think one of the most important initiatives
that thus far we've discussed in the short time I've been here is the
faith-based initiative. I want to make it clear to you, we understand
the Constitution. But I also want to make it clear that
faith-based programs in many neighborhoods are really the solution to
making sure we have a welcoming society. (Applause.)

My hope of hopes is that when it's all done,
somebody will say, well, you know, President George W. Bush came --
number 43, by the way, as opposed to number 41 -- (laughter) -- but he
came, along with his dad, and understood the office, helped change the
tone, helped affect a cultural change that was a welcoming change and
welcomed people into America; that didn't pit one group of people
against another, but that helped people understand the greatness of
America should apply to everybody; that the public policies that we
passed together enforced that dream and vision; that this is the
greatest country on the face of the Earth because of its people,
because of our great people.

We have an obligation to the people of America
to set a good tone, a good example, an example of the spirit of what's
possible. I'm confident it can happen. And it's
such a huge honor, huge honor, to play an important part.